This is my first attempt at a portrait in colored pencils, it's certainly different from working with pastels! It's of my sister's Rottie, Mattie. (Don't know if it'll turn out, it might just join my other 'train wrecks' hidden away in the back of a closet...)

Thanks for the kind words, Doc and Jess. I can already see a couple of spots where I've messed up, but they should be fixable...

Smkie: Lol! That's how I usually start my basic line drawing once I'm past the general sketch for position stage. It seems easier to judge the distance between the various parts (ears, nose, etc.) once the eyes are in place.

Shading is all over the board for pencil, although I generally start in the vicinity of the eyes - With pastels (usually horses), once I have the shadows and highlights in place, I start my color layers at the nose and work up the face.

Lol! That'd be hard cuz I don't know what I'm doing either... I did a google search for colored pencil technique and found a site that actually offers a tutorial online (and found out I had already screwed up from the get go. I had lightly sketched Mattie in a 3H graphite pencil for a starting point. According to this guy, graphite doesn't mix well with colored pencils and you're not supposed to do your preliminary drawing with it. Oh well... Lol!)

Lol! That'd be hard cuz I don't know what I'm doing either... I did a google search for colored pencil technique and found a site that actually offers a tutorial online (and found out I had already screwed up from the get go. I had lightly sketched Mattie in a 3H graphite pencil for a starting point. According to this guy, graphite doesn't mix well with colored pencils and you're not supposed to do your preliminary drawing with it. Oh well... Lol!)

Can you please give me the link to the online tutorial? I'd love to see it.